The phrase “Can’t Win For Losing” is a common one employed when best efforts are either frustrated and/or fail to accomplish the desired ends. It is not primarily focusing upon the Health Care Reform issues, or Tea Party Movements, or an analysis that leads one to believe Capitalism is lost and Socialism has replaced it. When frustrated and feeling helpless, a person may shrug and exclaim: “I Just Can’t Win for Losing!” Politically – one might feel that way - but there is more to life, culture and the world than just American Politics and Posturing.
Consider this news item and headline: “Invasion of the Grasshoppers” or “Day of the Grasshopper Looms”! The Wall Street Journal in a March 28th item states: “Farmers and ranchers across the West are bracing for a grasshopper infestation that could devastate millions of acres of crops and land used for grazing. Over the coming weeks, federal officials say, grasshoppers will likely hatch in bigger numbers than any year since 1985. Hungry swarms caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage that year when they devoured corn, barley, alfalfa, beets - even fence posts and the paint off the sides of barns…A federal survey of 17 states taken last fall found critically high numbers of adult grasshoppers in parts of Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Each mature female lays hundreds of eggs. So the population could be very, very high this year…Grasshoppers, which typically thrive in the west at densities of about eight mature insects per square yard, are a healthy part of the eco-system - and food for birds such as the sage grouse. But last fall, surveys found 15 per square yard in hot spots, and those numbers are expected to rise this summer. Peak infestation areas can easily hit 60 or more hungry hoppers per square yard - a population so dense that they swarm over every surface on passing cars, cover country roads like a rug and lie so thick on grassy patches. To try to get ahead of the problem, Wyoming has allocated $2.7 million for suppression efforts, including aerial spraying of the pesticide Dimilin, which is fatal to maturing grasshoppers…”
For those desiring to provide for themselves, the Grasshopper/Locust issue is an added frustration. This is especially true when one reads another Headline: “CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP.” One becomes dismayed when reading: “The Fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than originally projected, and raise the federal debt to 90% of the nation's economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.” It gives little comfort to know: “The Federal Public Debt, which was $6.3 trillion ($56,000 per household at the start of 2009), totals $8.2 trillion ($72,000 per household) today, and it's headed toward $20.3 trillion (more than $170,000 per household) in 2020, according to CBO's deficit estimates. That figure would equal 90% of the estimated gross domestic product in 2020, up from 40% at the end of fiscal 2008. By comparison, America's debt-to-GDP ratio peaked at 109% at the end of World War II, while the ratio for economically troubled Greece hit 115% last year.”
One wonders if a Headline in the non-too-distant future might appear about this nation: O, How The Mighty Have Fallen! What should one due if a plague of grasshoppers comes upon a portion of the nation? What can one do if the nation bankrupts itself – and effectively loses prestige and power in the world? Must one be relegated to those who feel helpless and frustrated, and exclaim with them: “I Just Can’t Win For Losing!”? Perhaps we should learn from a Prophet of God who faced similar challenges. In Habakkuk 3:17-19, a day of great calamity and after Habakkuk had asked the Lord for the answer to the personal and national plight, he comes to this conclusion: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” It may take desperate times to get people to redirect their priorities and focus toward God, and God Alone. There is still time to do this – but – it needs to be done soon - now! Consider these things with me!
Consider this news item and headline: “Invasion of the Grasshoppers” or “Day of the Grasshopper Looms”! The Wall Street Journal in a March 28th item states: “Farmers and ranchers across the West are bracing for a grasshopper infestation that could devastate millions of acres of crops and land used for grazing. Over the coming weeks, federal officials say, grasshoppers will likely hatch in bigger numbers than any year since 1985. Hungry swarms caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage that year when they devoured corn, barley, alfalfa, beets - even fence posts and the paint off the sides of barns…A federal survey of 17 states taken last fall found critically high numbers of adult grasshoppers in parts of Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Each mature female lays hundreds of eggs. So the population could be very, very high this year…Grasshoppers, which typically thrive in the west at densities of about eight mature insects per square yard, are a healthy part of the eco-system - and food for birds such as the sage grouse. But last fall, surveys found 15 per square yard in hot spots, and those numbers are expected to rise this summer. Peak infestation areas can easily hit 60 or more hungry hoppers per square yard - a population so dense that they swarm over every surface on passing cars, cover country roads like a rug and lie so thick on grassy patches. To try to get ahead of the problem, Wyoming has allocated $2.7 million for suppression efforts, including aerial spraying of the pesticide Dimilin, which is fatal to maturing grasshoppers…”
For those desiring to provide for themselves, the Grasshopper/Locust issue is an added frustration. This is especially true when one reads another Headline: “CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP.” One becomes dismayed when reading: “The Fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than originally projected, and raise the federal debt to 90% of the nation's economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.” It gives little comfort to know: “The Federal Public Debt, which was $6.3 trillion ($56,000 per household at the start of 2009), totals $8.2 trillion ($72,000 per household) today, and it's headed toward $20.3 trillion (more than $170,000 per household) in 2020, according to CBO's deficit estimates. That figure would equal 90% of the estimated gross domestic product in 2020, up from 40% at the end of fiscal 2008. By comparison, America's debt-to-GDP ratio peaked at 109% at the end of World War II, while the ratio for economically troubled Greece hit 115% last year.”
One wonders if a Headline in the non-too-distant future might appear about this nation: O, How The Mighty Have Fallen! What should one due if a plague of grasshoppers comes upon a portion of the nation? What can one do if the nation bankrupts itself – and effectively loses prestige and power in the world? Must one be relegated to those who feel helpless and frustrated, and exclaim with them: “I Just Can’t Win For Losing!”? Perhaps we should learn from a Prophet of God who faced similar challenges. In Habakkuk 3:17-19, a day of great calamity and after Habakkuk had asked the Lord for the answer to the personal and national plight, he comes to this conclusion: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” It may take desperate times to get people to redirect their priorities and focus toward God, and God Alone. There is still time to do this – but – it needs to be done soon - now! Consider these things with me!
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